For this episode of the Stephanie Kase podcast, we’re talking about my journey in hiring team members and outsourcing my business! This is a topic I’ve gotten so many questions about from all of you, so I’m excited to dive in and chat about everything you wanted to know. My journey with outsourcing began pretty early on in my business, so I’ve got plenty of experience to discuss. Let’s dive in!

My First Journey in Hiring a Team Member

I think I hired my first team member back in 2015, which means I’ve been outsourcing work for seven years now. That’s insane! Anyway, as you know, I started my business as a wedding photographer. I pretty much immediately started outsourcing! My story is a bit unique because I grew my business while I was in college. And I knew that if I wanted to have a life outside of work and school, I was going to have to outsource some stuff. As as photographer, one of the biggest things you spend your time doing is editing. So, that was one of the first things I outsourced. The other thing I did that year was outsource my tax prep with an accountant. They were my first two hires, as independent contractors.

What should you outsource?

When I think about outsourcing, I try to think about what takes up a lot of time in my business that I don’t have time to do – or don’t really want to do. Of course, the other option is something I can’t do. With my accountant, I didn’t have to spend time learning how to do my taxes. Eric, my accountant, did it for me. With the editor, I knew I was just going to want my time back! I remember editing the first wedding I photographed on my own and I was sitting at my in laws, starting to export it and something happened that corrupted my catalogue… which means I lost all of my work.

It took me so long to edit, probably 20 hours or something crazy. I was crying my eyes out because I’d lost all my work. Thankfully, my father-in-law was able to get it back, which was amazing. But it made me realize that I was going to need someone to help me long-term because I could NOT be spending that much time editing every wedding I photographed. I worked with my editor all six years that I was a photographer and she was incredible.

I want to be clear: I think it is beneficial to know how to do everything in your business before you hand it off. You should know the ins and outs of what you do so. But, there’s definitely a point where you can start to hand things off to a team member. If you can teach someone to do it as well as you can do it, then you should outsource that task! This allows you to truly stay in your lane and focus on the things that you’re gifted at.

Hiring My Virtual Assistant and Bookkeeper

So the next person I hired was my virtual assistant. I’ve actually had a few virtual assistants over the years – from one of my sisters to a contractor, to (now) my employee. This role has looked different over the years, and that’s okay. At first, I knew I needed help with my workflow as a photographer. I needed someone else to help me with the steps – like delivering galleries, emailing clients, and that kind of thing. I didn’t need to be spending time updating a template and sending it out. My VA could do that.

In 2020, I started working with Kristina Dowler (Dot the I’s Outsourcing) and she’s incredible. She helped me with all of that and helped as I began to grow the education side of my business. At that point, she was doing customer support emails, scheduling YouTube videos, and things of that nature. It was a lot of odds and ends that she jumped in and helped with. This allowed me to focus on what only I could do – being at shoots, recording videos, creating content, and things like that.

The next hire after her was my bookkeeper Madison of Madison Dearly Bookkeeping, who is still on my team as well. She’s awesome and is an independent contractor for me who does bookkeeping. This is different than accounting. She tracks my books on a month to month basis. Her job is to make sure every transaction is done right, categorized appropriately, and provide reports. Before her, I was doing my books but I was doing a horrible job at it. I’d go, like, six months without checking in on it at all. I knew I needed someone else to be in charge of that!

My First Employee

Up until this point, I only hired independent contractors. They’re different than an employee! In 2021, I hired my first employee, Lilly. She’s my sister-in-law and my video editor! At this point, I was wrapping up my photography work. I began to realize I was spending a TON of time editing my YouTube videos – like 15 to 20 hours a month. She was a huge asset right away between YouTube and the Reels Mini Course videos I was creating. I trained her on how I edit videos, provided equipment for her to edit, and we went from there.

Because she is an employee, her relationship with me is a little different. I have to run payroll to pay her, I take taxes out, and so on. It took us a bit to figure it out (because I screwed it up, ha!) but we did get it all straight! It’s always a learning experience. Having Lilly around really gave me more freedom to create content and do what I needed to do, especially because I was pregnant at the time.

Hiring my HR Manager

In the fall of 2021, I hired Tori, my HR manager. At this time, my VA Kristina was beginning to pivot in her business. Certain tasks that she did for me were being removed from her service offerings and I also knew there were things in my brand that I needed to stop managing myself. So, I started working with Tori to create a job description of the person I was missing. She helped me with so many of the back-end logistics for hiring someone new. It was insanely helpful to understand how to create a company handbook, policies, procedures, and so much more.

My Latest Hire

We began to send out applications and I wound up hiring, Maggie in January 2022. I’ve talked about her role in other podcast episodes, but essentially she’s my brand manager and administrative coordinator. Her job is to understand everything about the brand and business. She manages my inbox – customer support and other things of that nature. She’s also an employee of mine, working 20 hours a week. Her role also includes digital product creation, email list, social media scheduling… really anything I need to help promote the brand. Maggie has basically taken over the blog and we’re still getting 25K+ views a month (more about our strategy on that HERE!).

How do you decide who to hire?

Deciding who to hire will look different for each specific business or brand, but something I’ve always tried to think about all of the tasks you do. It’s easy to think about big tasks – like editing – but even those things that take you 5 or 10 minutes every day can add up and eat up your time. Once you know the tasks that you do every day, you can decide where someone can help you. Circle things you don’t enjoy or are small tasks to fit int your budget and get started there!

Hiring team members has made such a difference in how my business is run. For example, once I’m done recording this podcast, I’ll hand it off to Maggie for editing and backend prep. Kristina will then create the blog and Pinterest pins from it. It’s amazing that I really won’t touch it again! Having team members has truly changed how I run things – especially as a new mom. I highly encourage you thinking about how you can start to outsource in your own business too!

If you’re listening and you have ideas about what to talk about next, please send in your requests! I really do want to know what you want to hear about in future episodes. Email me at [email protected] with your questions!! I can’t wait to hear from you!